Method for managing content caching based on hop count and network entity thereof

Abstract

Disclosed is hop-count based content caching. The present invention implements hop-count based content cache placement strategies that efficiently decrease traffics of a network by the routing node's primarily judging whether to cache a content chunk by grasping an attribute of the received content chunk; the routing node's secondarily judging whether to cache the content chunk based on a caching probability of ‘1/hop count’; and storing the content chunk and the hop count information in the cache memory of the routing node when the content chunk is determined to cache the content chunk as a result of the secondary judgment.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for caching content in a network, comprising:
 primarily judging whether to cache a content chunk by grasping an attribute of the content chunk;   acquiring a caching probability by extracting hop count information from the content chunk judged to be cached in the primary judgment; and   secondarily judging whether to cache the content chunk based on the acquired caching probability.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 storing the content chunk in a cache memory of a routing node when it is determined that the content chunk is to be cached as a result of the judgment in the secondary judgment.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the hop count information corresponding to the content chunk is stored in the cache memory of the routing node together. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 When the routing node determines to cache a received content chunk, forwarding the content chunk to a downstream network node.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein in the primary judgment, the content chunk is a part of a data packet received from an upstream routing node or a content server. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the hop count information indicates a hop count value of the content chunk, and the caching probability is a ‘ 1 /hop count’. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the hop count information is acquired by using a Time To Live (TTL) value of an Internet Protocol (IP) datagram. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the hop count information is acquired from a value indicated by a hop count field of a packet that transfers content, and the packet includes the hop count field and the content chunk. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the primary judgment includes:
 judging whether the content chunk is a target to cache by using attribute information included in the packet that transfers content;   judging whether the received content chunk is a packet that transfers general content or a control message;   judging whether the received content chunk is a packet that transfers real-time interactive content; and   judging whether the received content chunk is a packet that transfers a personal content.   
     
     
         10 . A network entity in a network system, in order to transmit/receive content by the unit of a chunk and implement a content caching placement method, including:
 a plurality of content servers;   a plurality of routing nodes; and   a plurality of user equipments,   wherein the routing node includes:   a module primarily judging whether to cache a content chunk by grasping an attribute of a content chunk received from an upstream routing node or a content server;   a module acquiring a caching probability by extracting hop count information from the content chunk judged to be cached in the primary judgment;   a module secondarily judging whether to cache the content chunk based on the acquired caching probability; and   a module storing the content chunk and the hop count information in a cache memory of a routing node when it is determined that the content chunk is to be cached as a result of the secondary judgment.   
     
     
         11 . The network entity of  claim 10 , wherein the hop count information indicates a hop count value of the content chunk, and the caching probability is a ‘1/hop count’. 
     
     
         12 . The network entity of  claim 10 , wherein the hop count information is acquired from a value indicated by a hop count field of a packet that transfers content, and the packet that transfers content includes the hop count field and the content chunk. 
     
     
         13 . The network entity of  claim 10 , wherein the module primarily judging the routing node includes:
 a module judging whether the content chunk is a target to cache by using attribute information included in the packet that transfers content;   a module judging whether the received content chunk is a packet that transfers general content or a control message;   a module judging whether the received content chunk is a packet that transfers real-time interactive content; and   a module judging whether the received content chunk is a packet that transfers a personal content.